“The film will be really tough, really nasty,” [RIDLEY SCOTT] notes. “It’s the dark side of the moon. We are talking about gods and engineers. Engineers of space. And were the aliens designed as a form of biological warfare? Or biology that would go in and clean up a planet?”

Halcyon Holding Corp accepted the $29.5 million bid from, of all parties, the debtholder which pushed it into bankruptcy, Santa Barbara-based hedge fund Pacificor.

Lionsgate and Sony were the major players in the bidding war with Pacificor (which isn’t even a movie studio) and are currently negotiating with Pacificor for the go-ahead to develop any future movies.

No word just yet on whether or not this means Christian Bale will return (although it seems unlikely) in what was planned as the first of a trilogy storyline that began with TERMINATOR: SALVATION.

Lionsgate, and rights holder Paradox Entertainment have approved Jason Momoa to star in Conan, the rebirth of the Robert E. Howard-created series. The brawny star of Stargate Atlantis who also stars in HBO’s Game of Thrones, Momoa got the nod over Kellan Lutz, the Twilight guy.